Rother blasts traffic study

Planning officer Leslie Robinson says the transport study should consider how traffic is going to get through congested west Bexhill to the proposed Bexhill-Hastings link road.

He also says making the Hastings-Ashford rail link to the Channel Tunnel dual-track should be undertaken as a matter of urgency.

The study has reached public consultation stage. It warns transport in the region will worsen significantly if nothing is done.

But Mr Robinson says the study does not go far enough in dealing with problems in the Bexhill-Hastings area.

It is estimated that by 2016 car use in the region will have risen by 28 per cent if left unchecked. Even if measures are taken to reduce car use it is still expected to rise by 20 per cent.

By 2030 it is predicted car journeys will have risen by 48 per cent.

Mr Robinson says the clear message is that "Do nothing is not an option."

He believes it is essential the integrated transport package proposed in the study is delivered as a package. "There can be no cherry-picking it must be a package."

At the planning officer's suggestion, Monday's Rother cabinet meeting agreed to beef-up its response to the study.

Rother will tell SoCoMMs: "The council wishes to emphasise that once the Worthing situation has been dealt with the only places on the South Coast where strategic road traffic will be routed through residential areas will be Bexhill, Hastings and Rye."

Mr Robinson says on the A259 in west Bexhill, traffic levels can be expected to be well over 20,000 vehicles a day by 2016 even if the emerging strategy reaches its target. Already, there are 32,000 vehicle movements a day at Glyne Gap.

Rother will tell SoCoMMs it considers that improvement of the A259 from West Bexhill to the planned link road will be essential.

Offering an improved rail service in order to coax motorists to go by train is a key part of the strategy.

Yet, says, Mr Robinson, electrification of the Hastings-Ashford link to the Channel Tunnel is not the total answer. Only by restoring the link to dual track operation will the necessary train schedules be possible.

Rother leader Cllr Graham Gubby told the cabinet there was a danger that controls would be employed to reduce car use. But in a district like Rother there was often no alternative but the car in rural areas.

"By far the most important element in this is that they have failed to consider why we lost the argument for the bypass."

Cllr Bill Clements said 120,000 people lived in Bexhill and Hastings compared with 5,000-6,000 in Polegate. Yet Polegate had just got its bypass.